After Everything
by yua san
Summary: Set just after Koizumi and Ôtani finish senior school, things continually go wrong for Koizumi and Ôtani always misunderstands the situation. Is it really worth being with him? Alas Sadly don't own the characters or anything else!


"See you soon!" Nobu called to Koizumi. She walked hand in hand with Nakao, smiling as they left the school gates for the last time. Soon Nakao would become an apprentice at his granddad's sweet shop, then Nobu would be training to be a nutritionist. They planned to get married after that.

"Lucky ducks." Koizumi muttered.

"Bye bye Risa, Ôtani-chan!" Chiharu said in her quiet voice. She crossed the road with Suzuki beside her. Hopefully come result time they'd be heading to university together. They too had planned what they were doing now everyone was graduating from senior school. Koizumi turned around to face the gates she'd only just made it through so many times before.

"Koizumi.... you're looking ugly like that." Ôtani's voice wafted through her ears as his hand swung in front of her vacant eyes.

"You dummy..."

"Say that again to my face why don't you!" Ôtani shouted.

"You idiot!" Koizumi shouted, her cheeks tinted pink slightly.

"You're really pissing me off, what's the matter with you?" Ôtani glared at her.

"This the last time we're going to stand in front of these gates. And... we still... havn't talked about our future...." Koizumi put one hand up to her eyes as the tears flowed. Ôtani stared at her for a few minutes before sighing.

"You're the dummy here." He said quietly to her.

"What?" Koizumi said as she took her hand away.

"Just because we haven't planned anything doesn't mea-"

"Now look, the all Hanshin-Kyojin duo at it for one last time." A middle aged man said from behind them.

"We're going to miss the two of you every class now." A much younger, better-looking man said from beside him.

"Kong.." Muttered Ôtani.

"Mighty..." Koizumi lowered her eyes. It had been over a year since she'd dropped being the manager for the mighty fan club.

"Get a move on, you won't ever get into university if you spend the rest of your lives stood outside these gates. That's even if you passed." Kong said gruffly.

"Say that again!" Ôtani's temper flared. "You'll see! Come results I'll have shown you all!" He shouted passionately. Koizumi looked at the floor as he shouted. She knew he'd passed; he'd worked his ass off in cram school and the library before the finals.

"We'll see. Now get out of here." Kong turned away back towards the building. Mighty was smiling.

"He's going to miss having you both in the class." He explained.

"Yeah, right." Ôtani remarked. "You mean he's going to miss having someone to do all his jobs for him!" He shouted at the distant back of their teacher.

"You better take care of Risa, Ôtani." Mighty smiled at him.

"What?!" Ôtani screeched. His cheeks now a nice shade of red.

"Remember what I said 2 years ago, if you're not careful I may steal her away." Koizumi blushed and looked at the floor as Mighty said this. Suddenly Ôtani broke out into a grin and his cheeks faded.

"You can't." He said with glint in his eye. "You're married to Jônouchi now."

"Lucky for you." Mighty replied smoothly. "But I mean it, you better watch out now that you're not in senior school, if you're not careful someone will take her." He said with a charming smile. Ôtani glared at mighty before grabbed Koizumi's hand.

"Bye.." She managed to get out before Ôtani stomped away, dragging her with him. Neither saw the small smile that Mighty had on his lips. A similar smile crossed Koizumi's face too.

Ôtani stared at the ground as he pulled Koizumi with him. People stared but she was used to it. People had been staring ever since he first asked her out. She didn't blame them; sometimes even she still found it hard to believe they were together. She was long over the height difference between them; she didn't care so long as they were together.

"Let's go to café Ikebe." Ôtani suddenly said.

"What? For real?!" Koizumi grinned at Ôtani. They hadn't been there for some time because of the exams. He stopped and without turning to face her began to speak again.

"Yeah. And then after that why don't we go to a karaoke bar or something. We can sing some Umbôzu songs." As he said this, Ôtani didn't look as excited as he normally did at the name of Umbôzu.

"Yeah, that sounds like real fun!" Koizumi tried to reply as enthusiastically as she could. What was wrong with Ôtani? He was acting really different.

"You're acting really weird." She remarked with a frown.

"Oh." Was all he replied. "Well I'm fine." He gave a lopsided frown and then looked back to the floor again.

"I'm going to go home first and get changed, why don't we meet at Ikebe in an hour?" Koizumi suggested. She needed to speak to Nobu.

"Why, you look fine the way you are." Ôtani scowled.

"I don't want to wear uniform today, this will be out last date for some time, gosh I just want to look pretty for a while." A small smile appeared on Ôtani's lips as Koizumi said this.

"I'll see you in a ho-" Ôtani was cut off by the pounding of feet.

"RISSAAAAAAA!!!!" A strained voice interrupted them. Haruka skidded to a half beside them both. Hands on his knees, he panted as he struggled for breath. A girl rounded the corner nearby and nearly bumped into Haruka as she just managed to stop.

"Koizumi senpai! Ôtani senpai!" Sieko smiled as she looked at Haruka.

"Sieko-chan! Haruka, what are you doing here?" Koizumi asked puzzled.

"What do you want." Ôtani said frowning.

"You were going go without saying goodbye!" Haruka accused whilst looking devastated.

"We just wanted to wish you luck!" Sieko said smiling. She wouldn't be graduating until next year.

"Here you are, walking off with this shrimp and you didn't even think to say goodbye!" Haruka said with his hands covering his face, pretend tears fell to make himself look even more distressed.

"Hey who are you calling a shrimp, loser!?" Ôtani shouted.

"Shut up you obnoxious midget! I'll still love Koizumi more than you could!" Haruka stuck his tongue out as he said this. "Koizumi how could you still be with this idiot?!"

"**I'm** with this jumbo girl because I'm nuts about her!" Ôtani suddenly exploded. Koizumi's mouth dropped open. Ôtani hardly ever spoke about his feelings even when he was with her, never mind in front of people, particularly Haruka.

"I'll speak to you later Haruka, Sieko-chan?" Koizumi managed to get out as she was dragged away yet again by an angry Ôtani.

"What was that?" She casually asked.

"Just nothing! Be at Ikebe in an hour ok?!" With that he let go and stormed off in the direction to his house.

Koizumi stood on the corner watching Ôtani's back as he skulked away. "Jeez, what's his problem?"

After walking deep in thought, Koizumi finally got home. Dumping her bag on the bedroom floor, she picked up her cell-phone and dialled Nobu's number. "Please pick up" Koizumi willed the phone.

"Risa?" Nobu's voice finally answered.

"Nobu can we talk for a bit?" Koizumi said in a dull voice.

"What's wrong? Ôtani isn't being an idiot again is he?" Nobu always assumed he was. That was usually because he is one.

"He's acting strange. He want's to hang out but doesn't seem enthusiastic about it. I'm meant to meet him at the café in a bit." Risa said staring to the side of her.

"Maybe he's going to break up with you?" Nobu said thoughtfully.

"You don't think so?!" Koizumi cried down the cell.

"I don't know. But what are you doing! You have to dress up! Get down there Risa!" Nobu exploded.

"What..?" Koizumi said confused.

"Now's your chance! Show him he's an idiot, that he'd be crazy to let go of you!" Koizumi could almost picture Nobu right now. She'd probably just punched the air.

"Yeah but I don't know. Haruka saw us before. Ôtani said something about being nuts about me." Remembering this made Koizumi a little less worried.

"Well I don't know then. Anyway Risa I've got to go, Darling's over at the moment and he's nearly finished the cooking. I'll see you later!" And with that the line died.

"Great." Muttered Koizumi. She walked over to her wardrobe and after a long while of staring at the clothes. She decided on some jeans and a vest top. Just as she was about to grab her heels, she paused before picking some smaller shoes. She was already tall enough...

Soon she'd thrown her hair into a bun and wrapped a yellow scarf around her neck." She practised a grin in the mirror but it fell more into a grimace. Nobu's voice about inner boobs drifted through her ears, and after shaking the thought away, Koizumi marched out of the house. She got as far as the end of the street before remembering she'd left her purse in the house. After a quick run back, she glanced at her watch and realised the hour was nearly up. This wasn't a time to be late, after the look Ôtani had had, being late would make whatever was wrong, worse.

The street was blissfully silent for a few moments. The warm air had a pleasant breeze to it, and somewhere in the distance children could be heard playing. This silence was broken with the sound of Koizumi's bicycle cutting the air as she raced towards the city centre to Ikebe. Being March the temperature was beginning to rise, Koizumi knew this was a bad time to cycle fast, but she knew she also couldn't risk being that late.

She was only a few minutes away from her destination. However as she turned a corner she had to grasp the breaks and hold on for dear life as she swerved to avoid crashing into someone. She soon tumbled into a heap, scraping her arms as she did so. She'd also not swerved quite enough, and a groan alerted her to this.

"I'm so sorry!" Koizumi pulled herself from the tangled heap of the bicycle. She was shocked and half concerned to see the person she'd knocked down was in fact Kohori. Without meaning to be rude she was almost hopping from one foot to another with slight impatience as it took Kohori a while to speak. She was fully aware this was making her even more late, but she had just knocked him down, she had to make sure he was ok.

"Risa-san! didn't think I'd see you! Well, didn't think I'd be run down by you anyway." Kohori said in slight humour.

"You're ok aren't you? I didn't hurt you?" Koizumi glanced up and down at him. Nothing looked amiss except for his black and white hair. But then that always looked ruffled.

"No broken bones!" He said with a smile.

"Good because I – "

"What are you doing here anyway? Didn't think I'd see you anytime soon, especially since you quit working at Ikebe!" Kohori interrupted Koizumi.

"Just on my way there actually, I really need to get –"

"Oh. How is everything? You've just graduated right? Is the ceremony soon?" Kohori was either purposefully not letting Koizumi go, or he was completely oblivious to her attempts of escape. Just as she was contemplating running, Kohori's shout and the sudden grasping of her arm made her jump half in the air. "You're bleeding!" He exclaimed. She'd hardly noticed, she'd been so concerned about getting to the café she'd forgotten she'd scraped her arms.

Ôtani turned the corner from a street that joined to the one they were on. He'd been running, after telling Koizumi to get there on time he'd nearly been late himself. He stopped in his tracks as he saw Koizumi's back, her arm outstretched into Kohori's hands. He stood for a few seconds before turning around and walking around the round through another path to the café.

"Kohori I'm fine, really! But I _need_ to get going ok?" Koizumi pulled her arm away and jumped onto her bicycle before Kohori had chance to interrupt her again.

"Sure... Bye Risa." He muttered.

She finally got to Ikebe. After tying the Bike up around the back, she ran into the café, panting from the slight hill she'd just had to complete. She looked around smiling for Ôtani, but her smile soon faded as she located him near the back. He was staring at the table and looked miserable. Her heart pounded as she slowly walked towards him.


End file.
